Spanish Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Spanish language. It's 100% free, no registration required.

English

I always thought the two could be used interchangeably (meaning "the Spanish language"). But I recently got into an argument with someone where they insisted there was a difference (although I didn't quite understand what that difference was).

To designate the common language of Spain and many nations of America, and which is also spoken as their own language in other parts of the world, the terms castellano and español are valid. The controversy over which of these names is more appropriate is now outdated. The term español is more advisable for lack of ambiguity, as it unequivocally refers to the language spoken today by about four hundred million people. It is also the name used internationally (Spanish, espagnol, Spanisch, spagnolo, etc.). Even though it's a synonym of español, it is preferable to reserve the term castellano for referring to the Romance dialect born in the Kingdom of Castile during the Middle Ages, or the Spanish dialect that is spoken today in the region. In Spain, the name castellano is also used when referring to the common language of the state in relation to other co-official languages in their respective autonomous territories, such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque.

So both terms are used for Spanish because they are synonyms, but Español is less ambiguous; so it's preferable to use Español for "Spanish" and "Castellano" to refer to the Spanish spoken in the Spanish area of Castilla.

In Spain, "Castellano" is also used to refer to the official common language of the country as in some regions there are others official languages (e.g. Basque, Catalan...).

@hippietrail thank you very much for the translation
–
JaviDec 14 '11 at 9:18

Feel free to edit it or leave a comment if I made any mistakes.
–
hippietrailDec 14 '11 at 9:19

1

I find this answer simplistic. It obviates the fact that usage of these two terms is heavily loaded with politics and emotion for many people, at least in Spain. RAE may define things this way, but since history is written by the victors, and RAE is predominantly composed by Castilian speakers, they systematically ignore the perspective of the "losers". Please see my answer on this page for more details.
–
CesarGonFeb 7 '12 at 22:20

"Castellano" or "Castilian Spanish" is also often used as synonim for "Spain's Spanish", to distinguish it from "Latin american Spanish", especially when dubbing movies. See an example here: Let It Go in 25 languages

This answer is about Spain, and only about some people in Spain. It is also an answer drawn from my knowledge and experience as a native speaker of Spain’s Spanish, a Spanish citizen and someone who has lived in Spain and overseas for extended periods of time.

This answer is also an extended and better version of a couple of comments I made to @hippietrail ’s answer, which have been unfortunately deleted by moderators. My comments were offensive in form, which I admit, and for which I apologise. But so is some of the content that I found on this page. Let me explain.

The first thing we need to understand is that Spain, like other countries in Europe, is a mosaic of cultures rather than a homogeneous mass. Maybe you think you already know this. And maybe you are right. But please keep reading just in case. I have lived overseas for years, and had the opportunity to interact with multiple people from different nationalities and backgrounds. I am always surprised that, for example, Canadians or Australians (and these are just examples, please don’t pick on them) think of their respective countries as being the epitome of multiculturalism. I agree that these countries are vibrant communities of diversity, but more often than not, these people miss an important difference: in Canada or Australia, nationalities and cultures have been co-inhabiting and brushing against each other for a few centuries, but in Spain or some other European countries, this has been happening for a few millennia. This is multiculturalism.

Specifically, Spain as a country was constructed in the 15th century, when different kingdoms and realms were united through political manoeuvring. As you can imagine, political union does not necessarily entail cultural union, especially when the different cultures are backed, as was the case, by different climates and geographical features, which in turn mean different crop and cattle raising habits and traditions, which in turn mean different lifestyles and economies. To this, we need to add the fact that up to eight languages coexisted in Spain. Castilian Spanish was the lingua franca imposed by the union.

The second thing we need to understand is that Spain went through a strict military dictatorship between 1939 and 1975. Amongst other values, this regime imposed the idea of unity, and to foster this it banned any language other than Spanish from Spain. The consequence was not, like @c4sh says in his/her answer, that Spanish became the only used language. How on earth would kids (and adults) that had been raised in Galician, Basque or Catalan, and who did not speak a word of Spanish, move overnight to speaking Spanish only? That’s ludicrous. What really happened is that those people became legally second-rate citizens, and often sent to jail, tortured and even killed. This happened just one generation ago, so it is still very alive in people’s memories. My parents did live this themselves, and I am only in my forties, so this is not ancient history. Kids at school who wouldn’t speak Spanish, which was the usual case for most kids in Galicia (the region where I come from), were sometimes forced to strip naked and walk under the rain like animals, since the teacher, following the precepts of the dictatorship, sustained that they could not speak properly and therefore were not people but just animals. And so on and so forth.

The imposition of a language on a community as an instrument of domination is a well-studied device, and the history of colonisation is full of examples. Spain is just one more.

I am finishing now. :-)

The term “Spanish”, to the mind of many people, means imposition, domination, banning of their native vehicle for communication. Jail, torture and dead relatives. “Castilian”, on the other hand, means a foreign language that you may or may not chose to speak.

You may argue that these are just words, and I can agree. But we should not forget that some people have gone through experiences that load words with intense meaning, and we might not be able to start imagining the power of such load.

Before we pontificate about something as complex as this, we are morally obliged to obtain a deep understanding of what we are talking about. I wouldn’t even dream of being opinionated about racial issues in the Deep South, aboriginal communities in Redfern, Sydney, or religious friction in the Balkans. I’d rather shut up, because stuff is too complex, people have suffered too much, and I’m too alien to those worlds. Similarly, I’d love to see a similar degree of respect elsewhere.

+1 I can only agree with this answer as it provides a very valuable point of view on the matter. But consider the following Cesar, Spanish is no longer a language localized to the iberian penninsula. The population that speak spanish in the penninsula is tiny compared to the hispanic world. There must be a unification of terms and that is the purpose of the RAE(which also envelopes the academies of all other hispanic countries), in this unification there must be many sacrifices for common understanding and standarization. Castellano is understood in the hispanic world in some regions [...]
–
Joze♦Feb 7 '12 at 20:51

1

but on others it is not. On the other hand Spanish is understood everywhere, even in countries that do not speak spanish. That's why Spanish should be used when referring to the language in a general sense. It means what you say to many people I don't deny it, but in these kinds of things not everything can be controlled and you can't blame people for using Spanish, not everyone is literate in the history of Spain. Using castilian to refer to the language outside of spain may get another meaning across (no offense) such as being pretentious or snobbish by refusing to use the word spanish. IMHO
–
Joze♦Feb 7 '12 at 20:54

1

@Joze: I agree with you, totally. I don't blame anyone for not being literate about the history of Spain; you are completely right that we cannot expect everyone to know about everything. However, I would blame someone who opines about something complex and with deep implications in a frivolous, superficial manner. In summary: using the term "Spanish" to convey a simple, unloaded meaning in a pragmatic way is OK; pontificating that the difference between "Spanish" and "Castilian" is just pedantic is not OK.
–
CesarGonFeb 7 '12 at 22:07

2

@Joze I agree you and but I don't agree CesarGon. The dictatorship imposed the Spanish language, but it finished. It's quite unfair for all the Spanish that the term "Spanish" can be understood just as the language of the supporters of the dictatorship. Spanish existed before the dictatorship and was spoken not only in Castilla but also in the rest of Spain (it doesn't mean that there weren't others). Spanish is just a common language among all Spanish citizens and I don't want that all those supporters of the dictatorship can appropiate on the language. It's not theirs.
–
JuanilloFeb 8 '12 at 8:21

2

@hippietrail: I know, and I empathise. I lived and worked in Australia for a few years in heritage-related matters, and I know the situation relatively well. At least, the Australian government has officially apologised for the suffering caused (albeit cynically, perhaps); in Spain, there are ex-members of the dictatorial regime still holding public office, and the judge who tried to investigate crimes committed during this sad period of our history has been accused, harassed and removed from his post. See e.g. politica.elpais.com/politica/2012/02/08/actualidad/…
–
CesarGonFeb 8 '12 at 12:32

It all comes down to times of Franco dictatorship. Back then there was (officially) only one language in Spain - Spanish (español), all other regional languages were strictly forbidden. The name suggest, that it's a language of whole Spain, while in fact many regions have their own languages or dialects. Hence now in Spain it's more commonly called castellano, to underline that it's not the only language for the whole population of Spain (I'd write Spaniards, but that's would again be controversial, as some separatists don't consider themselves Spaniards, even though they live in what's currently Spain).

On the other hand in the Americas, first of all there was no Franco dictatorship, secondly the only language from Spain used there is Spanish. Thus the term español is not at all controversial and accepted on par with castellano.

I can't agree with you about The Americas. In Mexico we almost always call it español but in Argentina (and I'm pretty sure at least also Uruguay) it's almost always called castellano.
–
hippietrailDec 16 '11 at 10:44

This is one of the distinctions which you will always get wrong, because native speakers disagree. In part it comes down to politics. For example, some pro-independence Catalans will say español because it's the language of Spain (and Catalunya isn't part of Spain); some pro-integration Catalans will say castellano because (Catalunya being part of Spain) they want to distinguish between castellano and the other Spanish languages (with Catalan usually being the pertinent one). Even that's too simplistic an analysis, but it serves to illustrate the point: just pick one and get used to people correcting you.

I lived in Catalonia for six years. It was always castellano when talking to Catalans. None Catalan residents didn't express a preference. In practice, there is no difference and it's only really locals making a dubious point.
–
LeoDec 15 '11 at 16:59

It has some connotations, as people said before. Especially for places that suffered under Spanish rule and also for the regions in Spain that have autoctonous languages. One thing you have to consider is that some autochtonous languages of regions in Spain (like catalan) were banned by Kings or dictators in the past so that Spanish would be the only used language.

Therefore, there is a quite extended feeling in some regions of having been forced to use "castellano" and being persecuted for using their own language. This feeling makes it preferable to say "castellano" (associating it with the original region of the language") rather than "spanish" (which reminds of the forced centralism and unification).

This controversy is not at the point that someone could get offended if you choose either, but there are historical reasons for the exact choice, as you can see.

Of course, in most contexts, it just doesn't matter and both are used (even in these regions I mentioned).

Some people like to insist that it must be called castellano but calmer people accept both.

Most places use español more but some places including Argentina and Uruguay use castellano more. Places that have a history of suffering under Spanish dominion also seem to prefer to avoid español.

But castellano is ambiguous because it may refer to how Spanish is now or once was Spoken in Castile - and I'm not sure this region adheres to the RAE more strictly than anywhere else, or that the RAE bases its rules on the language of this region more strongly than anywhere else.

The RAE's position is that both are fine and acceptable variants but in their own documents they seem to always use español.

Note that where it's controversial, the controversy even sometimes spills over into English and whether to call the language Spanish or Castillian, and whether the latter should be used to refer to some official/standard/proper variant.

I have removed some comments that were considered offensive by some, and didn't really add to the answer. I still think an additional answer might be useful to provide some more context and history, and to flesh out @CesarGon 's view. But I'll leave that up to those who understand the context better than I do.
–
Flimzy♦Feb 7 '12 at 18:58